Bay Center

Florida's Department of Education released the first results of a sweeping new
teacher evaluation system Wednesday morning that sought to provide more
accurate data on teacher effectiveness and increase accountability.

But state officials retracted the information just hours later, citing
inaccuracies: thousands of teachers were double-counted as a result of
duplicate job codes, the Tampa Bay Times Reports. The reports rated 95 percent
of the state's teachers as "effective," according to WTSP, but showed results
for 23,970 teachers, when the state actually employs fewer than 15,000
educators.

Florida Education Department spokesperson Cynthia Sucher told the Times that
the error is "distressing" to the agency. But those who have been critical of
the new evaluations were not surprised -- like the National Center for Fair &
Open Testing, otherwise known as FairTest and a longtime critic of high-stakes
testing.